Western Reserve Historical Society Library Won't Reopen Until 2025

The Western Reserve Historical Society in 2019. Credit: Google

The library of the Western Reserve Historical Society will not be reopening until next year, following months of restoration and preservation work after a fire blazed in its building last September.

Shortly after the incident the morning of September 28, library administrators predicted WRHS’ archives would reopen to the public this summer. Due to extent of damage, and the need to restore part of the library’s furnishings, a surer reopen date was pushed back, director Ann Sindelar told Scene, to the “early months of 2025.”

Which has its implications. The usual cast of researchers who sign up to pursue the library’s 130,000 items—from international filmmakers to PhD students—will have to do without due to the further delay.

“It’s unfortunate,” Sindelar said. “We don’t like being in this situation in which we are not able to be open. It’s something that we just have to address and hopefully we can work through these times.”

As colleague and library president Kelly Falcone-Hall wrote in a December letter, Sindelar reaffirmed on Friday that “no collections were lost” in the fire.

About a hundred Hollinger boxes from three different collections were affected, primarily by lingering smoke, black soot and water damage. Sindelar did not specify exactly what these items were, just that they were “a variety of” media and archival material. (A member of the Conservation Center, the Chicago-based conservator firm hired by WRHS, told Scene the items include “rare books.”)

On September 28 of last year, at around 7:40 in the morning, library employee Ray Pettite smelled burning oil ten minutes after he clocked into work, according to the report from the Cleveland Fire Department. Alarms went off. Smoke clouded the library.

The CFD’s thermal test an hour and a half later confirmed heat damage in and around the library elevator’s motor unit. Hydraulic oil had pooled, and traveled to nearby rooms. Unfortunately, the library’s relatively-new dry sprinkler malfunctioned.

Sindelar, who’s said she’s still working with the library’s insurance company to pinpoint the cause, said she doesn’t suspect foul play.

The rest of the center, including the Crawford Auto Museum, reopened the day following the fire, and will remain open, Sindelar said, as the library portion is restored throughout the year. While working elsewhere, library archivists are busy at work on digital series, a collection of Soviet Jewish papers and a highlight of the photography of famed local Black photographer Allen Cole.

In the meantime, as conservators and restorationists work to remedy the fire damage, Sindelar said she’s hosted in-person research sessions for a lucky few.

“But the most part,” she said, “people are waiting until we reopen.”
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